B. Plouvier C. Saegerman
Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Epidemiology and Risk analysis applied to the Veterinary
Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

J.P Maudoux
Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain, Administration of control Policy, Brussels

D. Berkvens
Institute of Tropical Medicine, Department of Animal health, Antwerpen, Belgium

V. Baeten
Head of Community Reference Laboratory for Animal –Proteins in feedingstuufs, Gembloux, Belgium

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) belongs to the group of degenerative diseases affecting the central nervous system. The most likely cause of the BSE crisis is feeding cattle with meat and bone meals (MBM) contaminated by the resistant prion obtained by recycling ruminants’ carcasses affected by transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The 2000/766/EC decision established total feed ban for the first time. This decision consists in banishing the use of processed animal proteins for feeding animals raised for the production of food products. All the products or substances used for animal feeding are checked by the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain following a yearly planned samplingschedule.
Controls concern both products meant for the Belgian market and exported products (intra-community exchanges and exports towards countries). The study and analysis of the samples obtained through the planned samplingschedule described above are the basis of this study. Different risk factors were highlighted in Belgium over the period between 2001 and 2004. These exploratory variables are the feed category, the feed origin and feed production companies.

Keywords:
Meat and Bone meals, ESB, feedingstuffs, feed, processed animal proteins